I've had a few things going on and writing has gone by the way side for a few months. It was a bit of a surprise when the solstice rolled by and I suddenly found myself facing Canada Day. I have kind of an easy month ahead of me. The first thing I thought I would do is catch every body up on my travels and advocacy.
If there is one thing cancer is, it is complex. Understanding that complexity feels like the hockey player who won't change their socks. They are winning and are afraid that changing anything might upset the delicate balance.
My practice in making New Years resolutions is not to make them. But over the last few years I have chosen a word to act as a theme for my year. For example "Adventure" was the word for the beginning of the pandemic and the lockdown.
But more importantly my word this year is Courage. And so I have been looking at my life and trying to take the bold steps that will allow my life to feel more fully lived.
Solving is all about logic and mathematics. I have had a traumatic relationship with mathematics all my life. I had no problem with arithmetic but I squeaked out of university calculus with 53%. The only good thing about that was that I knew I had gotten it myself. it had been 51% I would have always wondered.
In October of 2022, I led an introductory workshop for the Health eMatters conference. It wasn't recorded but several people have asked for the slide set. I converted it to pdf and have posted it here for those folks to see.
I feel a bit like the boy in the story crying "Wolf." I have been crying "cancer" for much longer than I expected (and I suspect longer than most of you expected.) When I got the prognosis that said "Five percent make it to five years" I didn't think I would make it. Those odds didn't look good to me and I prepared myself. I got my affairs in order; I prepared a client transition plan; and I bade farewell to doing first aid. All this in the face of my brother telling me to go buy a cruise ticket for five years out. I didn't do it.
Remind me not to leave it three months before I write a newsletter. Get a cup of coffee and settle in. There is a lot of water under the bridge and a lot to read.
Before you get started if you want to make a donation to my Run for the Cure campaign the link is: https://support.cancer.ca/site/TR/RunfortheCure/RFTC_NW_odd_?px=12977008&pg=personal&fr_id=28512
I attended the Canadian Lung Cancer Conference on behalf of Lung Cancer Canada in July of 2022. I came away with a sense of the cutting edge of research and debate in the lung cancer community.
Double your donation
From October 13th to 15th CIBC will match all donations made. So sorry for the short notice BUT
I'm running again. And yes I'm doing the pink thing again. Only this time it will be my first in person run in three years! So not only am I running but I will be doing it with a lot of others. I do have a goal. In the spring I ran a 30 minute 5K (I think) and my goal is to do that again under more controlled circumstances.